The Ledbury

London, UK

No.42

British game and vegetables take lead role in Brett Graham’s tour de force

In a nutshell: A serene and distinctly high-end London dining experience featuring modern British food with an emphasis on wild and reared game and seasonal veg, plus the odd Pacific inflection born of the chef’s Antipodean background.

And the chef is: Brett Graham, who first travelled from his native New South Wales, Australia, to the UK as part of a culinary prize. He opened The Ledbury in West London in 2005 when he was just 25.

More on said chef: Graham is a great talker – get him onto his passion projects such as raising livestock at his deer farm or the importance of an unobtrusive and relaxed service style, and you’ll know it – but he’s an even better cook. The Australian is not one to parade around his West London dining room, and eschews TV, books and international gourmet summits in favour of turning out exquisite dishes from his basement kitchen.

Such as: White beetroot baked in clay with caviar salt and smoked eel; Cornish cod caramelised in Richmond Park honey and turnip; Berkshire muntjac with hen of the woods, potato emulsion and rosemary.

More than a restaurant: The Ledbury uses a probiotic technique to produce compost made from 100% kitchen waste. Customers can take home 5kg bags for their indoor planting or gardening needs.